Remembering Grammie with a Smart family reunion in Hermosa

Photos are here:
http://web.mac.com/jimsmart1/iWeb/Site/smart%20family%20hermosa.html

A very nice family reunion at the Hermosa Beach Pier. We ate at my grandparents' old favorite restaurant, The Mermaid. We walked on the pier and threw flowers in her memory. Highlights: Aunt Meg smiling from her wheelchair, and seeing Sierra and Lucky Smart together: they are THIRD cousins!

See my uncle's excellent photographs at http://www.pbase.com/ae6eg/mothers_memorial

ski madness!

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See all of the photos:
http://web.mac.com/jimsmart1/iWeb/Site/Mammoth%20spring.html

Grammie Smart video

Today is Grammie Smart's funeral in Palm Desert, California. I am unable to be there, feeling a little guilty, which is fine, because guilt helped give me the kick the pants I needed to make a little film. They showed it at the funeral, which had about 150 people in attendance.

Actually, it was Aunt Meg who suggested I make a film when I was making guilty noises on the phone. Aunt Meg's body was irreparably damaged when she stopped a rolling vehicle from rolling into a crowd of school children with it many years ago. Her sunshine spirit in the midst of suffering is a great inspiration.

So for you, Aunt Meg, and all the Smarts, here's a film of memories by the Hawaii Smarts:

Trash Dive

On Sunday we had a family "pick up trash" day at a local beach. The boys and I took SCUBA gear and collected marine debris as well. Here's a couple of pics:

Makapuu Moon

Here's a painting I finished yesterday:

Sierra turns five today!

Grammie Smart

Grammie Smart passed away last night. She was a large presence in my life.

When I was 16, she took me to England. I remember a fancy show at the west end, river trips through locks, exploring Tintagel and Stonehenge and especially Mousehole. This is a quiant fishing village just around the bay from Plymouth. Small twisty streets leading down to a tightly enclosed harbor consisting of two walls with a small entry for the fishing fleet. We changed our plans and stayed there for a couple of days, we liked it so much.

On the way back we me my grandfather in New York. He took me to the US Senate, where I remember seeing Ted Kennedy. I amm thankful that they took me to the top of the World Trade Center on that trip. There was a booth where you could get your picture taken and it would be printed onto a t shirt right there. They got me one.

Grammie gave me and Shari some Chinese communist hats when we stopped at her place on our 1986 cross country trip. She taught us dominoes, and we ended up playing it quite a bit.

Grammie Smart was a hard core Texan southerner. She never lost her Dallas twang. She told me that our ancestor fought in the Civil War. When I asked which side they fought for, she snorted, "The South, of course!" However, I remember when Bill Clinton came on the TV before he was elected president, and she said, "I could never vote for a man whose eyes are so close together."

She loved USC. She was a professor of education there. All my Christmas gifts growing up were USC socks, shirts, sweaters, hats, etc. She took me to several of their big football games back in the seventies. Red and gold, red and gold.

She spent most of the last year in a state of dementia. Perhaps it's for the best as far as USC goes; she never learned that her great grandson Jack didn't apply to be a Trojan.

Grammie was hard to please. No matter how often I visited her, it was never enough. She was intelligent, extremely well-travelled, and was not shy with her opinions.

She would have turned 92 next month. Though the last year was very rough for her, the other 90 were quite good. I'm glad to have her good genes.

The last time I saw her was in October 2006, when I took this picture of her. I sang some songs on the ukulele for her, and she was more relaxed and less opinionated, her mind suspending her memories in favor of being in the moment.

She was one of a kind. She left her mark on me, deep and strong. I'll miss her.

Jim

Happy New Year

Here's a movie of all of our Christmas photos through the years:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8UZdBTZ3vM

Mentos and Diet Coke

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdguFhJ2eq4

YouTube hit

Wow! Since Decmeber 18, 5,928 people have looked at my little home movie about the Decemberists vs Stephen Colbert! Scary numbers!

Here's the movie:

New movie: More Molokai Beach Fun

Sierra and her cousins on Molokai, Thanksgiving 2006

Jack the movie star

Here's a link to learn about Jack's latest movie, which is part of the Honolulu Film Festival:

http://starbulletin.com/2006/10/24/features/story01.html

The film premiers tomorrow, and concerns the internment of German Americans in WWII, a little known topic.

A day at the beach

Spinning cube

Jack's new play!!

Sierra and dad in music video

Click on the image to see the new 3 minute movie of Jim and Sierra in their first music video for one of Jim's new songs:

42

Hi Lynn and Bill,

I am very happy with how birthday 42 went for me this weekend. I had a big party, with so many diverse friends that I felt wealthy in the best sense of the word. I combined an idea from Lord of the Rings with Hitchiker's Guide. Such high literature, I know.

I like Tolkien's idea that Hobbits give away presents on their birthdays, so I did that. I had a table by the door with my new CDs, my band t shirts, and a pile of nice print outs of one of my paintings. I encouraged people to take a "mathom" on their way out. Mathom is Tolkien's word for something that's just sitting around in a closet, but you can't throw it out, which is what all of those items are for me.

All the musicians I know have piles of their CDs in their closets. I can afford to just give them away to those who are interested without pushing them, which is nice.

So no one gave me presents, and no one sang happy birthday to me, and I loved it!
It was kind of a blur, though.

I was honored that such a big crowd came. It was loud and fun, with good food, and people did whatever they wanted. We had a nice circle of musicians for awhile, and it was folks who hadn't played together before, like Gerry from the Daytrippers, Jim from Don't Panic, and assorted hangers on. This was in by the piano.

I remember being one of the loudest, most obnoxious fans for the big foosball tournament. Jack and Kehau were scoring on Kirby and Kale, and I was shouting "Go Blue!" and other inanities.

Sierra had a bunch of other little girls to pal around with, including dress up in her room and a trip to the park at night.

Some teens and adults monitored the U.H. volleyball game in the TV room.

Mostly people were just talking, eating, and drinking in the back yard. The weather was great, and talking out of doors, meeting new people, and sampling the various delicacies was the favorite activity. Lots of Punahou folks came, and my musician friends like Dave, Gerry, and Martha. Bob and Ginger came down the hill, and several other neighbors. The usual suspects like the Miller/Watkins clan, Dane and Lisa, Bob Tam, etc.

People snapped the mathoms up, and instead of the traditional birthday stuff, we just had a great time eating, playing games, music, talking and drinking. Definitely my best birthday ever, and I feel great about being 42.

more later,

Jim

The passing of Terri

Sad news, folks. Our friend and colleague, a great fellow English teacher and all around sweet lady passed away yesterday. She was too young to die, and the shock of it all is how fast it happened. In June she was a healthy teacher getting ready for a trip to stay with our friend Herbert in Innsbruck, Austria. In July some medical test results prevented her from going. She had cancer, and each test result was progressively worse. Now in August, she is gone. My brain reels trying to comprehend the suddenness, sadness. This is what I meant when I wrote a song that "live is in a minor".

Here's Lynn's e mail about it. Lynn and Bill had taken her to Brazil for some alternative healing, since the doctors gave her no chance:

Dear Jim,
Glad to know you got home safely.
Terri passed away peacefully this morning in a hospital in Anapolis Brazil, where we brought her last night. Yesterday was an amazingly remarkable experience, which I´ll relate later. We are in the funeral home now making complicated arrangements to have her body sent home for cremation ... a nearly impossible task here.
I´ll call later.
Love,
Lynn

new camp photos

We are back in Hawaii now, admusting to new time zones and enjoying our five-ness.

Photos from the end of camp:
http://web.mac.com/jimsmart1/iWeb/Site/Treetops.2006.3.html